Day 17: Okayama to Naoshima

Day 17: Okayama to Naoshima

QOTD:  Briskin? You Briskin?

Weather: mid to high 70s

Pics:  Breakfast drinks at ANA Hotel, Nagi (Nah-shee) Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagi Town tourist poster (with all markings in Japanese other thah “Nagi Town Tour Guide Map”), snacks for the road, lunch on the road, waiting for the private ferry, Chichu and Li Ufan museums, Benesse Park Hotel

Breakfast buffet at the ANA was very nice, THB sticks mostly with yogurt and cereal and a strange assortment of drinks (see pics, can you figure out which is which?). At 8am, we’re picked up by a private driver and head to Nagi Town (who knows why they refer to themselves that way, maybe they got it from those of us who refer to Oakland as Oaktown). Around 9:30 we arrive at the Nagi MOCA, which is a combo museum and library.

There’s a huge cylinder on an angle set on a mound outside the museum. It turns out to hold a mirror image of the Ryoanji Temple rock garden (DB picks it out right away, THB‘s favorite in Kyoto-town!). Inside, everything is on an angle, doubled in the circle, making the person inside more than slightly disoriented.

Another room is an echo chamber, and the third major permanent installation is wires springing up outside in a courtyard from a short pool of water and then on the other side of the glass inside the wires are springing up from a set of rocks that you might find in a river bed. Nagi Town MOCA is worth a detour if you’re already way out of your way.

Back in the van, a stop for lunch in a rest area where THB and DB share buns and various breads and cheese and discard fuyu persimmons that are nothing like what we get in Oaktown, THB has a softie and lemon water and DB has something akin to a drumstick and water, around $15.

Another lengthy ride and we end up on the passenger dock in Uno awaiting a private ferry pick-up. A few boats arrive, ignore us, and about 10 minutes before we’re due to be picked up THB calls the Benesse Park Hotel (our spot on the island of Naoshima for the next 4 nights) and says “we’re here and there’s no boat” and gets questioned about where are we, yes, we’re in the right spot. 10 minutes after we’re supposed to be picked up (this is like a criminal offense in Japan, it NEVER happens that someone promises to be somewhere at a certain time and isn’t there), THB calls again to the Benesse and this time basically yells at the hotel to find out where is the ferry? This time THB says to call back after resolution. A few minutes later, one of the malingerers on one of the boats comes up the ramp with a cell phone to his ear: You Briskin? and hands THB his phone and it’s the hotel. Hmmmmm…somehow a Japanese guy driving a boat to pick up four gringos misses us when he came within 10 feet of us. Then the guy won’t help us with our bags, on or off, and never apologizes. Something like a bow and “I’m sorry” in Japanese would’ve gone a long way; which the hotel has had to do several times since THB is still upset!! Hmmmm…we’re using this same service in a few days, maybe they will have made up a sign with THB’s name on it by then.

A very quick turnaround at the hotel, on to the shuttle, and a visit to the Tadao Ando designed  Chichu Art Museum (DB’s third time, THB’s second, E&J’s first), which highlights three artists: Turrell (skyscape, light show room), DeMaria (huge staircase in what THB thinks is homage to the pharaohs), and Monet (four pics of water lilies that do nothing for THB and Ando has done wonders for Monet).

A short walk to visit to the Li Ufan museum (all these buildings including the hotel are Ando designed) which is sparsely full of boulders (large and small, inside and out) and steel plates and very powerful.

Back to the hotel to check-in, shower, get on wifi that is available in a small corner of the lounge (where there is a machine that makes 6 types of coffee, none with milk) , and then eat at what might be called fancy French-Italian fare at the hotel restaurant.

This is another comedy act because the meal has been pre-ordered for us, the smaller tasting menu, a fixed price 4 courser that for one of us should have no fish and for the other three is therefore warped between having two fish courses (what two of us want) and subbing fois gras for one of the fish courses for all four of us. Back and forth, two different order takers, and what finally appears is all four meals get fois gras (pretty good), one person gets two of the amuse bouche without fish and the rest of us get two different amuse bouche, a small cup of something that THB can’t identify and can’t understand the waiter’s English, asparagus soup with froth, two people get beef for their main course, two people get mackerel for their main course (THB and DB; it’s very good); everybody gets poached pear with caramel ice cream (one eats only the ice cream, one eats almost no ice cream; nobody ordered the tiramisu), 6 glasses of wine, two coffees, $75 for the extras and the rest is already included.

Just enough time tonight to reconcile a problem with the taxi tomorrow (one sheet says pay the driver $70, one says it is already pre-paid and prepare a tip) and wash some clothes. Oh, and we are reunited with our send ahead bag, it beat us easily (and THB guesses came by public, not private, ferry).